A big finish and some progress

Roses - July 12

Here it is the start of another week and another week of trying to figure out what the new normal is going to be for everyone. In the last week a lot of Ontario opened up a bit more with social distancing rules but Toronto and the surrounding area are still in the second phase of reopening.

Roses - now as I said last week I was getting close to having this piece finished. I was wanting to see if I could get it finished quickly and after sitting and looking at it last weekend I realized that there really wasn't a lot of stitching left to do on the piece and a finish was a lot closer than I first thought.

Roses - July 15

I worked on Roses a bit each day at the beginning of the week and then on Wednesday when I saw how close I was I sat and worked on it until it was done. It was such a nice feeling when I was able to take the piece of the q-snap and hold it up finished for the first time.

Me holding Roses

As you can see in the piece of me holding the fabric it is a large project and I am very happy to have it finished and now it is just a matter of getting it stretched and framed.  This is my very first Heaven and Earth Designs pattern that I finished and I am looking forward to having it hanging on the wall soon.

Blushing - after Roses was finished it was time to figure out which project would get some attention for the rest of the week so I picked up Blushing.

Blushing - July 5

A lot of the focus this week was trying to get some of the black finished up at the bottom on the first page. There is a lot of black in this piece so I figured if I can sit and focus on it for a while over the weekend that I might see some progress.  It was nice to see that I have been able to get at least some of the black done and now to see when I can get the left section of this page finished as it is all black as well.

Blushing - July 19

I am not sure if Blushing is going to be the project that I focus on for a while but at least over the weekend it was what I worked on.


With all the heat that we have been dealing with, I haven't done a lot of other things so now to see how things go.  The weather forecast is still for hot and humid days so I will see what I can get done some evenings.

I hope everyone is finding bits of time each day to do the things that you love doing. I am now off to get some work done and then will see what I work on this evening.

Progress this week

Roses - July 4

Here it is the start of another week, and we continue to be in Stage 2 of COVID-19 getting back to life.  Of course, that still means that most people are working remotely, so that is what we are continuing to do. Stores are open, but there are still lots of restrictions when you go to any of them. 

Roses - now, here is the project that I worked on this week as I would like to see it completed before too long.  I decided that instead of picking up another project for one day I would just focus on this piece, and I am now very happy with the results that I am seeing.

You will notice that the rose has been moved in the two pictures, and that is because this week it was time to move the q-snap for the last time for this project. The one thing that I didn't do was take a picture of my progress before moving the frame, but at least you might be able to see some of it in the second picture at the top. I was also going to take a picture of the entire piece as it was before this last little section gets completed, but I forgot to take that as well.  I am pretty excited to see that this piece is getting closer to a finish, and now I am into the last area and it just needs to be filled in.

Roses - July 12

Yesterday I decided to see if I could get the rest of the piece outlined, and last night I got that completed, and it makes me happy to see what is really left to do.  I am not sure when I will be completing this project, but I can safely say it shouldn't be too long before this piece is off the q-snap and waiting to be framed.


Besides working on Roses I haven't had a lot of time to work on other things.  The heat and humidity were also around most of last week so that made it difficult to work on any of the other projects.

I hope everyone is staying safe and if your area is opening up I hope you continue to be careful, and wear your mask. Hope you have a wonderful week, and you find a bit of time each day to do the things that you enjoy doing.

Progress and a small finish

Roses - June 28

Here it is the start of another week here in Ontario and dealing with COVID-19 restrictions.  Things are slowly starting to open up but it is going to be quite a while before things are back to normal.

Roses - here is the project that got most of my free time this week.  Having a statutory holiday during the week also helped as it gave me a bit more time to sit and do the stitching that I wanted to do.  I decided that I was going to focus on this piece as much as I could to see if I could get closer to a finish. 

Roses - July 5

I am still around 3,000 stitches away from finishing this piece but I am very happy with the progress that I was able to make this week.  I hope to get some more work done on it this week but will have to see how things go.  Part of me would like to get this finished up quickly as it has been a project that has been on the go for a while.

I hope to move the q-snap at some point this week as I need to get to the bottom section and then it will be all about getting the rest of the stitches in on the piece.  I am still hoping to get this piece done by the end of the summer so now to see if that does happen.

Blushing - June 28

Blushing - I decided that after working on Roses most of the week that I would pick up Blushing and add some colour to the piece.  I didn't spend a lot of time working on this piece but at least I got it moved forward a little bit.  I hope that once Roses is done I can focus on this piece a little more and see how it goes.

Blushing - July 5

I have decided to leave most of the black area until after I have finished Roses.  It is nice to have areas that I can just stitch when I don't want to count stitches but right now I am going to try to get the colours added to Blushing. Some of the colours seem so bright when I pick them up but once they are added with all the other colours they are working out fine.

Quaker Puffin - July 5

Quaker Puffin - yesterday I decided I wanted to see if I could sit something some for a change.  I had this pattern so figured it might work up quickly and I was right.  Quaker Puffin only took a couple of hours to stitch and with it being all one colour it made it very easy.

I haven't decided how I will finish this piece but considering the size, I am thinking it might end up as an ornament.


I haven't worked on much other than Roses this week as that is now turning into the focus until it is complete.  The hot and humid weather also means that I don't want to do a lot of knitting or crocheting right now so those projects have been taking a break.

I have work that needs to get done now so I am going to see what I can get done.  I hope everyone has a good week and you continue to find the little bits of time each day to do the things that you love.

Progress on Roses

Blushing - June 21

Here it is the start of another week and another week of working remotely and dealing with a lot of things still not normal.

Blushing - I have once again decided to work on Blushing for a little while and see how much of it I could get moved forward.  I  only spent a couple of hours this week working on it but at least I have once again seen a change in the design.

Blushing - June 27

What was fun this week was working on a colour and discovering that I was almost finished it for the entire design so of course, I had to try and get all of that colour done, and now I am one less colour to worry about. There are still another 88 colours to complete, but it did feel good knowing that I have at least got one of them done.

I am hoping that this project starts to get more attention, but that won't happen until I finish another project that is getting the time right now. Roses continues to be the focus piece right now, and it will be until it is finished.

I would like to ensure that I move this project forward a little bit each week because I am loving all the bright colours in it.  This is one project that for me is so different as a lot of the projects I am currently working on are a lot of greys, browns and black.

Roses - June 21

Roses - here is the focus piece that gets as much attention as I can currently give it.  I still don't have a lot of time to work on it, but I have finally started to see that the end is getting closer. I am happy to say that I now have 15% of the piece left to go and will see when it gets completed.

This week I was able to spend a bit of time most days getting a few stitches in so that was nice.  I once again completed around 1,000 stitches, so it wasn't a lot but at least I was able to get it moved forward. I would like to continue to focus on this piece and hopefully see it completed before too long.  I know I said I wanted it done by the end of September, but it looks like it might be done before then if things go well.  I am not going to say a date that I want it done, but I would like to see it completed before the end of the summer.

Roses - June 27

I have a few other projects that are getting bits of attention.  The English paper piecing runner has got some attention but still doesn't look like much. I have also done little bits of knitting but not enough to show results in a picture.

Work continues and I am also mentoring some college students, so that has been very interesting. The mentoring also has allowed me to learn a lot from the students as well.  Sure, I am their mentor but they are also showing me what it is like being in college at this time.

I hope everyone has a good week and stays safe. May you continue to find the bits of time each day to do the things that you enjoy doing.  Have a good week and I will be around next week with hopefully some more progress on my stitching.

Progress so far

Here it is the start of another week and we continue to work remotely

with our clients.  Ontario has started to reopen which is wonderful but the Toronto area is still basically in the state where we are still at home.

Blushing - over the weekend I decided it was time to try and make some progress on this project.  It feels good to see some progress and I am looking forward to seeing more progress on this piece before too long. 

I continued to work on some of the borders as well as I thought it would be a good idea to get it moving forward.  The area around the rose has a lot of black in it so that means that I need to start to work on getting it filled in as well as continuing to get the rose itself done.  This project is another Heaven and Earth

Designs but it are considered a quick stitch because there are larger blocks on single colours in this piece.  It is a nice change to have something that works up a little quicker.

I hope that I can continue to see progress on this piece over the next while as I continue to work on some of the other projects as well.

Roses - this week I decided it was time to try and focus on getting more of Roses completed.  One of the big accomplished this week was I had to move the frame again because I stitched the area that I had available. 

This piece is moving forward and I have now got to 80% complete and am working hard to see that before too long I can get the rest of the piece finished.  It won't be this month when it is finished but I hope before too long that I can see that I have been able to get it finished and then will be able to frame it and hang it up.

The rest of the craft projects continue to get a bit of attention but given the heat and everything else, it is a challenge to work on much.

I hope everyone continues to stay safe and well. If your area is getting back to normal or what is your current normal I am happy for you.  We hope that things start to open up here a little more before the end of the month.

I now have a few items that need my attention today so I am going to go and work on them.  I hope everyone continues to find the little bits of time each day to do the things you love.

Progress and some colour

Here it is the start of another week, and I am happy to say that I was able to make a bit of progress on a few things this week. We are still in phase 1 of getting things back to normal here so that means that most things are still closed and businesses are working remotely as much as possible. Parts of Ontario have started to allow restaurants and more businesses to open but in the Toronto area, we are still waiting for that to happen.

Roses - this week I didn't get as much stitching done on Roses but at least I was able to get the bud completed and have now started on another large rose.  it is nice to see that it is slowly coming together.  I would love to see this piece finished soon, so that means that I am going to need to focus on it and see how it goes.

It is nice when I can sit and work on this piece a little bit at a time and see more and more progress on it.  Again I try and work on it a bit each day even if I can only get one thread completed.  This week is a good example of how much I can get done when I work on it either one or two threads a day.

I hope to continue to work on this piece and see how much I can get completed before the end of this month.  I am currently at 78% complete so now to continue to work on it and see where it ends up.

Blushing - after working on Roses all week, I thought it was time to try and start something new, but with brighter colours.  The piece that I decided was going to get started

over the weekend was Blushing which is another Heaven and Earth design and this one is of one single rose.  I loved the colours when I was kitting this project up and decided it was time to get it started.

This project is a lot different than a lot of the other Heaven and Earth designs that I am working on as there are lots of blocks of colour so it does stitch up a little quicker than other patterns.  I know that I am saying that right now after just working with three colours but I will see how it goes when I work on this piece.

English Paper Piecing - I decided that one of the goals for the weekend was to get some of the motifs finished up for the runner that I am working on.  I finally figured out it was time to work on this project and see if I can get it moved forward after it sitting for so long without attention. 

Saturday morning I sat down and figured out how many of the light and dark blue motifs that I needed to have for the project, and I set to work on getting them all done.  It doesn't take long to make a motif, especially when you are doing something else at the same time.  By the end of the weekend I have finished all the light and dark blue motifs and now just need to finish making all the white motifs.

This week I am going to see if I can get some of the motifs attached to the runner so that I can see how big it is going to be.

We continue to work remotely with our clients to assist them with supporting their staff. It has been good to have the method to continue to work with all of the clients when we can't be on site.

This week I have a couple of other things that I am going to be doing and am looking forward to that.  I hope everyone is staying safe and well during this time, and if you are getting back to a normal routine continue to be careful.  I hope you continue to find the little bits of time each day to do the things that you love to do.  Have a great week, and hopefully next week I will have more to show you on the various projects that got little bits of time this week.

Some progress this week

Mini Farewell to Anger - Jan 3

Here it is the start of another week, and things are remaining about the same here.  Working remotely from home hasn't changed, and the routine that we have is staying the same.

Mini Farewell to Anger - I decided it was time to pull out a project that I haven't worked on since the very beginning of the year.  I pulled up Mini Farewell to Anger and got a few more stitches added to this project.

Mini Farewell to Anger - May 31

You can't see much of the progress, but I was able to add four more colours into the lower section of the page, and it makes me feel good knowing that it is slowly moving forward.  I am not sure how long this project will stay out but at least I know that I was able to get a few more stitches added onto it.

Roses - May 24

Roses - this project continues to be the focus of my stitching.  A lot of that is because I want to see if I can get it finished before the end of September this year.  I am still trying to get it finished before the 2nd anniversary of me starting the piece.

Roses - project so far - May 27

I have been able to continue to work on this piece a bit each day, and it makes me feel good.  I don't get a lot of time to stitch, but even getting 100 stitches in helps move this project forward a bit at a time. 

Early last week it was time to move the piece so that I could continue to work on getting more of it stitched.  Of course, once it was off the q-snap it was time to take a progress picture of the entire piece so that I could see what it looks like. I am happy with how it is coming along but I will be happy to see it finished now that I am seeing the end in sight.

Roses - May 31

When the piece was out of the frame I decided that I could try and get most of the right section of the pattern completed and then move onto the left side.  I am not sure how long the side will take me to finish but I have started to work on the next section of pages.  I hope to see more of this finished over the next few weeks but work and everything else will determine the time that I have to work on it.

My goal is still to continue to try and get on average one hundred stitches a day in on the piece so that it continues to move forward and I will get it done before the end of September.


A few of the other projects have got a bit of time but again nothing big enough to show.  I hope that now that things are starting to get back to more of a normal schedule that I can also see progress on things.

It is now time for me to wrap up here and get the work done that is on my desk.  I hope everyone has a good week and you continue to find bits of time to do things that you enjoy doing each day.  Stay safe and well and hopefully next week I will have a bit more progress to show you.

Some progress

Roses - May 18

Another week has come and gone, and I hope everyone continues to be safe.

As it was a four day work week last it meant that things got done at a different pace but things got moved forward. 

Roses - I continue to work on adding stitches to Roses as I would like to see this done before the end of September. I have been able to work on more of the one rose, and hopefully, before the end of this coming week I will be able to start working on the left side of this area. 

Roses - May 24

I don't get a lot of time to stitch, but when I do I have been able to get a couple of threads added, and that makes me feel good.  I am now close to finishing up this area, and then I will have to move the frame so that I continue to get more of this overall project done.  I am enjoying working on this piece as it is one colour, but even with that, it doesn't take too long to start to see more detail emerge when I sit and work on it.

This has been my focus piece for the last couple of weeks, and I am going to see what this week has in store.  I have a couple of other projects that I would like to work on even for a couple of days, so I will see what happens.

v-stitch shawl - May 3

V-stitch shawl - I have been slowly working on this project over the month and figured it was time to show some of the progress on it. As this project gets longer it gets harder to show in a picture, so that is why there hasn't been a weekly update.  Also, it is hard to show weekly updates when there isn't much of a change week over week.

I have almost finished the first ball of yarn for this shawl and then I will need to decide how much longer I want to shawl to be.  I haven't measured it yet either as I am waiting to see the length once this ball of yarn is done.  It has been a fun project to work on even if I can only get a row or two done each time I pick it up.

v-stitch shawl - May 24

I have been using this project when we have been trying to relax at the end of some days, as it is something that doesn't require a lot of concentration to complete.

English paper piece - I am continuing to work on this project as well, but there isn't a new picture for this week as I would just be showing another group of motifs sewn together.  Yes, I have been working on getting another couple of groups done, and then I will start to add them to the runner.


The weather here has now got very warm, and I think we missed most of spring as we had cool weather, and now they are calling for very warm weather today.

I hope everyone is staying safe, and you continue to find little bits of time to do the things that you enjoy doing for yourself.  This week, I will see what I work on, and hopefully, next week I will have some other pictures to show you what I have been working on.

Progress on a project

Roses - Oct 29

Here it is the start of another week here in Ontario, but at least things are starting to open up again, so we will see what life is like.  For us, I think it will be remaining the same as companies are still working remotely.

Roses - I decided that it was time to pull out a piece that I hadn't worked on for a while.  I figured more than 6 months of not seeing this piece was too long, so I pulled it out this week and started to fill in sections of another page.

Roses - May 18

I still have a lot of work to go on this piece as I have just started on the bottom half of the pattern.  I am looking forward to getting more of this done and would like to see it finished before the 2nd anniversary of starting it which is at the end of September.

This week I was able to complete two pages of the pattern, so now I have one more on the right side of this row and then I can move the fabric and do the pages on the left of this row.  I am looking forward to getting this piece done so now to try and focus on it for a bit.

English Paper Piecing - May 18

English Paper Piecing - I decided it was time to start working on getting more of the motifs attached so that I can get the runner completed that I have on the go. It was nice to sit even for a little bit of time and get the motifs joined together.  Now I would like to continue to get this done so that the runner can be finished up.  I still have a bunch of motifs that I need to make, so maybe now that I am working on it again I will want to make more of the little motifs.


I continue to work on a bunch of projects a little bit at a time and it is helping some.  I know that I do enjoy focusing on a couple of projects each week as it means that I can see progress on something.

Life is still moving along and we will figure out what the new normal is going to be when we can see that there aren't as many cases of COVID-19.  For now, we continue to work remotely with our clients and I try and find a bit of time each day to do something that I love.

I hope everyone is staying safe, and you are also finding the time to do something you love doing each day.  I don't know what this week has in store, but I know that I will continue to find a bit of time to relax and forget about what is going on in the world.

Progress on items

Roses - July 4

Here it is Monday morning, and I was able to get some crafting in last week but not very much.

Roses - now here is a project that hasn't had any attention since the beginning of July so I figured it was time to pull it back out and see if I could at least get the one rose completed.

Roses - Sept 29

 I sat and worked on this project a bit and finally can say that the main part of that rose is now complete and I have also completed the top half of the pattern.  This rose was the only section remaining to complete that top half so now I am going to be working on the lower half of the pattern and I don't think there are as many stitches in the bottom half as there were on the top half.  I hope to get back to working on this piece on a more regular basis.

One thing that helped was I found an app for my tablet that helps me mark off a pattern very easily.  The app is called Pattern Keeper, and it is for full coverage patterns.  Sure Roses isn't full coverage bu the app works wonderfully, and I am looking forward to using it when I pick up one of my full coverage pieces again which should be soon.

Everyday Shawl - Sept 22

Everyday Shawl - now this project has got the most attention of anything this past week.  I have tried to pick it up even for a few minutes every day to ensure that I can see some progress on it and I have.  The shawl measured 5.5 inches last weekend, and this weekend it is now 11 inches, so that was nice.

I am looking forward to seeing if I can get more of it knit this week as I am now on the main section of it and I don't have to look at the pattern any more until I get to the 30.5 inch mark.

I hope to be able to see some more progress on this shawl this week as I love being able to work on it around 20 minutes each day and then seeing what it looks like.  Some days I can get more knitting in, and other days I might get a row in, but at least I have been able to keep the shawl moving forward.

Everyday Shawl - Sept 29

I have been working on a couple of other projects, but I will write about them next week when I have been able to take some pictures of them.

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL section for October has been released so I hope that this week I can spend some time working on it.  I love the small projects as it does help make sure that I can see some progress on my stitching.

It is now time for me to wrap up here and get some work down as the list of things for this week is rather long.  Hope everyone has a great week and you find some time each day to do something that you love doing.

Progress on items

Here it is another week, and yes, I was able to get some progress on a couple of projects and a new start.

Roses - July 1

Roses - July 4

Roses - here it is another week and yet another picture of some progress on Roses.  I was able to continue to work on this piece for 100 days in a row but made a decision that I needed a break from it.  I have enjoyed working on this piece each day, but I started to make too many little mistakes that I thought I needed to take a break from it, and that doesn't bother me.  I have been able to make some excellent progress on this piece, and it isn't going away it is just taking a bit of a vacation, and hopefully, I will get back to it very soon.   I still want to get it finished by the end of March next year so will see how that goes. 

I have to admit that it has felt odd not working on Roses each day, but I have also been able to enjoy working on some of the other projects that I wanted to get worked on, so that is what I have been doing.

Mikros - July 1

Mikros - here is where some of my time has gone over the last week, and that is to work on Mikros and see how much of it I could get done.  I am still hoping that I will have this piece finished by the end of this coming week but will see what happens.

Mikros - July 6

The border on this piece did take longer than I thought it was going to do, but I like how it turned out once it was done.  I have now started to fill in all the various little designs on the piece, and it is slowly coming to life, and I am enjoying it.

The other advantage of working on this piece is I was able to figure out a method of getting the border done quickly, and that is good considering another project that I am doing.  The red and white around the entire piece was what I wanted to figure out how to get it done easily, and while doing this piece, I have now figured out an easy method of doing it.  I decided that I would try doing both the colours at once, so that is what I did, and now I will be doing it again on another piece.

MAP - July 7

MAP (Mysterious Adventure Project) -  here is a new start on this project.  I had a bit of a start a couple of weeks ago, but after looking at it, I didn't like the fabric that I was using and considering how large this piece is I needed to love the fabric and what the stitches looked like on it.

I restarted this piece yesterday and have been working on getting around the entire outside of it.  The final piece will fit into a 13"x19" frame with about .75" around this border, so there is a lot of work involved in getting this piece finished.  The border on this piece is similar to the border on Mikros, so that is why I enjoyed figured out how to get it done on a smaller version. 

This project is a mystery stitch along, and I am looking forward to seeing what it looks like once I have it all finished, but that won't be for a while as the last part of the design isn't released until the middle of November.


I have been working on a lot of other things besides my stitching but have enjoyed stitching some evenings even with the heat that we have had in the last week.  I hope that things are a little cooler this week as it makes it hard to work when it is so hot out.

I now have some things that I need to get done and hope that I can find time some evenings to do the things that I enjoy doing.  Hope everyone has a great week and hope you can also find a bit of time each day to do something that you love doing.

Progress and two new starts

Roses - June 23

Here it is Tuesday morning, and I am writing up about the progress for the last week.  I didn't write yesterday as it was a holiday here and I spend some of the time away from the computer which was nice.

Roses- July 1

Roses - I was able to get some work on this piece over the last week but as you can see it didn't get as much attention as it has been getting.  I was able to get another two pages finished even if they were small.  It is nice saying that I am now half way through this project and am looking forward to seeing it move forward over the next while. Now to see how much stitching I get done on this piece over the next couple of weeks as I have another project that I am trying to get finished quickly.

MAP - July 1

MAP - Mysterious Adventure Project - now this is a project that I started this last week, and it is another stitch along, and this one is by Ink Circles.  I can't show a picture of the finished piece as it is something that will be released a bit at a time over the next five months.  Also, the idea behind this project is you use dice to decide some of your layouts.

I am looking forward to working on this piece and seeing what my final MAP will look like.

I have just started working on the border of the design, and it is going to be rather large so that is going to take me some time to do once I can sit and focus on working on it.  We also get to pick a name for our map, so that is something else that I am trying to figure out, but I don't need it until August.

Mikros - July 1

Mikros - here is a small map that I am working on, and it was a bonus chart when you signed up to do the Mysterious Adventure Project.  I figured it was something that I wanted to work on and get done, so that is what I have been working on.  I hope to have this map finished within the next couple of weeks as it is only 3 inches x 5 inches so not as big as the other one is going to be.

This map was charted for us, so there wasn't any design work required to start this one so I picked my colours for this map and off I went.  The fabric that I am using is an 18 count Aida which I tea and coffee dyed as I wanted something that looks old.  The colours don't show up too well in the picture, but it does have a worn look.


It is now time for me to start to focus on getting the work done that I need to finish up today.  Hope everyone has a great week and you find time to do the things that you love each day.  You may not have a lot of time to do your own things, but finding a little bit of time to do the things you love is important.